Opening Video Illustration: A million Little Choices BluefishTV.com
Series: Acts Too – Soul Care
We need to approach the New Year of 2015 with healthy souls.
This is why we are stressing - Soul Care this month:
I asked you in December: “How is your soul moving into this new year?”
Jesus said in Matthew 16:26: “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
Jesus said in Matthew 22:37: “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Jesus emphasized the importance of your soul not just in eternity but it’s health in the here and now! Your success this year depends on the condition of your soul!
John Orberg states this about our souls: “If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life. If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life (Pg 40, Soul Keeping).
We titled our series: Acts Too (Soul Care)
Purpose of the Series:
Acts Too – The book of Acts is filled with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Chapter 2 on the first disciples and signifies the birth of the church. The churches early years are filled with miracles and hardships! It’s filled with salvations and rejections of Jesus! It’s filled with people embracing Jesus and others fighting against Jesus and his disciples. It’s filled with hope and death. It reveals the struggle between good and evil in this world. It highlights the good and the bad of church. But most importantly it shows what can happen in the church if the souls in the church are healthy and connected with the Holy Spirit! It did not matter that they were rejected and persecuted, chased out of towns, stoned, abused and imprisoned. We read story after story of the disciples sharing the good news to receive beatings and arrests but yet even while imprisoned they can sing and praise the Lord. It was because they had healthy souls which were connected and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We want a church filled with Christians like Acts too! A church filled with people who are being the church and have healthy souls no matter what is happening around them or too them.
Acts 2: 42-47: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
My vision for 2015 is to have a church like Acts Too with souls that are fired up for the Kingdom and hungry for a move of the Holy Spirit. Souls which are healthy and whole and following the direction of the Holy Spirit for their lives. But for us to get their will require us to do some soul searching and soul care!
Question: “What does the soul need to be healthy and whole this year?”
1. Our souls need a connection to its creator God or it will find another god (idol) to connect too.
a. Orberg states: Our soul’s problem, however, is not its neediness; it’s our fallenness. Our need was meant to point us to God. Instead, we fasten our minds and bodies and wills on other sources of ultimate devotion, which the Bible calls idolatry.
i. The OT repeatedly warns and reveals to us when we disconnect from God and connect to idols.
ii. It brings death and cursing’s not life and blessings.
b. John 15:5-8: 5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
i. Jesus remind us in this teaching that our connection to the life giving vine is essential or we will die! This teaching describes how people’s souls die – they disconnect from the Lord and all the vital nutrients and minerals are lost and they start a slow death.
ii. We must stay connected to the vine to have healthy souls that produce spiritual fruit!
T.S. – We must be aware that idolatry will destroy our souls – our connection with God – our relationship with the creator of our soul. Our souls were designed to be in God’s presence!
2. The soul needs God’s presence to be healthy and whole!
a. Adam and Eve’s story reveal why God created us – to be in His presence but sin separated us from God.
i. This is why Adam and Eve were banished from the garden but Jesus came and re-opened a deeper connection with God today.
ii. He became our ultimate sacrifice and created a pat for the Spirit of the Lord to live within inside us – in others words to have God’s presence with us 24 hours a day.
1. Acts describes a church filled with the Holy Spirit – notice the Spirit did not just come on them like it did in the OT he actually filled them up on the inside – this is why their souls were healthy and bold. Why they could sing while in prison and praise God through hardship!
2. Acts 2:2-4: 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues£ as the Spirit enabled them.
3. Acts 2:17-18: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
4. Acts 4:31: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind…”
5. Acts 6:3-4: “Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
6. Acts 9:17: Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
7. 1 Cor. 6:19-20: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
8. 2 Cor. 1:21-22: “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
a. All these verses plus many more tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit – to have the Holy Spirit live in us like he did in the Temple in the Holy of holies!
b. Our souls crave God – they want His presence dwelling in us – our soul has a longing for God’s presence because we were designed by Him that way.
i. Ortberg notes: If you read through the Bible, you get the sense that the soul was designed to search for God. The Hebrew Scriptures — which might be thought of as the Great Soul-Book of human literature — are almost obsessed with this thought.
ii. Listen to these few verses from the Bible:
1. The soul thirsts for the Mighty One (Ps. 63: 1).
2. It thirsts for him like parched land thirsts for water (Ps. 143: 6).
3. Like a laser it focuses the full intensity of its desire on him (Ps. 33: 20).
4. It lifts itself up to him (Ps. 25: 1)
5. It blesses him (Ps. 103: 1 – 2, 22)
6. It clings to him (Ps. 63: 8)
7. It waits for him in silence (Ps. 62: 1).
a. Ortberg notes: “Indeed, the soul lives in God.” The soul seeks God with its whole being. Because it is desperate to be whole, the soul is God-smitten and God-crazy and God-obsessed. My mind may be obsessed with idols; my will may be enslaved to habits; my body may be consumed with appetites. But my soul will never find rest until it rests in God.
i. Above from Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 116). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
iii. Our souls need to be connected to God’s presence – what changed and transformed the disciples in Acts two – a connection of their soul with the Spirit of God – it was an internal connection not and external one – it changed their perceptions – it drove out their fears of the future.
iv. God wants to make every moment of my life glorious with His presence.
1. Ortberg states, “Every day is a collection of moments, 86,400 seconds in a day. How many of them can you live with God? Start where you are and grow from there. God wants to be with you every moment.”
2. Ortberg adds, “As soon as I became aware of my self-centeredness, I surrendered my thoughts back to God and enjoyed his presence again.”
3. The best place to start doing life with God is in the quiet moments of your day – the car-the bathroom-the?
4. The truth is if I let the Holy Spirit live in me I will look at my day different – I will look at people different – the Holy Spirits presence changes what I see when I see them as God does I change.
a. Ortberg notes, “People are a huge part of the “with God” life, because we have to live with people.”
5. John challenges us, “Imagine how your church would change if you saw each other through God’s eyes. Imagine how the world would respond if Christians saw people the way God sees them.”
a. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 122). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
c. We need to dwell in the presence of the Lord and that can only happen when we allow the Holy Spirit to baptize us – immerse us in His Spirit.
T.S. – Your soul needs the presence of God to keep it healthy and whole but you also must guard your soul from the disease of “Hurry” you must ruthlessly eliminate the spirit of hurry from your life.
3. Your soul needs rest
a. What does it mean to have a rested soul? Just look at Jesus life and ministry – He reveals to us the importance of finding rest for the soul in life.
i. Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30)
1. God rests – Jesus rested and we need to do so too.
ii. John Ortberg notes this observation about the Lord and rest:
1. He states, “In the Bible, God never gives anyone an easy job. God never comes to Abraham, or Moses, or Esther and says, “I’d like you to do me a favor, but it really shouldn’t take much time. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.” God does not recruit like someone from the PTA. He is always intrusive, demanding, exhausting. He says we should expect that the world will be hard, and that our assignments will be hard.”
a. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 126). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
b. But He does promise us rest if we abide in and with Him.
b. A stressed out soul – a soul filled with the spirit of hurry and busyness is a soul that has lost the ability to rest in God!
i. John states, “When we carry around mental lists of errands not yet done and bills not yet paid and emails not yet replied to . . . When we try to push unpleasant emotions under the surface like holding beach balls under the water at a swimming pool . . . our minds grow weary.”
1. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 128). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. There is a kind of fatigue that attacks the will.
2. Not only does our mind grow weary, our bodies start to break down, our souls start to fragment from the stress.
a. The next time you go to the mall just sit in the courtyard and look at the people go buy do you see what the spirit of hurry and busyness is doing to their lives? To their souls?
c. Jesus engaged in certain practices that allowed God’s presence to keep replenishing and energizing His spirit (from Ortberg) – and we need to do the same:
i. He prayed.
ii. He had a circle of close friends — the twelve who went through life with him. He shared everything with them; people underestimate the role of friendship in Jesus’ life.
1. The power of friendship is highlighted in this thought from Benner: But it is not just connections in general that we seek. In the core of our being we yearn for intimacy. We want people to share our lives. We want soul friends. We were never intended to make the life pilgrimage alone. And attempting to make the spiritual journey on our own is particularly hazardous.
a. Benner, David G. (2009-08-20). Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship & Direction (Kindle Locations 95-97). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.
b. Our souls need soul friends!
c. Look at the soul friendships described in the book of Acts!
d. Ortberg notes, “Soul-fatigue damages our relationships with the people in our lives.”
iii. He engaged in regular corporate worship at synagogue.
iv. He fed his mind with Scripture.
v. He enjoyed God’s creation — mountain, garden, and lake.
vi. He took long walks.
vii. He welcomed little children and hugged them and blessed them.
viii. He enjoyed partying with non-religious types.
1. From Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 129). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
2. If you notice Jesus did not look at these spiritual disciplines as obligations that robbed Him of His freedom instead they made Him freer!
d. John states this about the importance of soul care and soul rest:
i. The soul was not made to run on empty. But the soul doesn’t come with a gauge. The indicators of soul-fatigue are more subtle:
1. Things seem to bother you more than they should. Your spouse’s gum-chewing suddenly reveals to you a massive character flaw.
2. It’s hard to make up your mind about even a simple decision.
3. Impulses to eat or drink or spend or crave are harder to resist than they otherwise would be.
4. You are more likely to favor short-term gains in ways that leave you with high long-term costs. Israel ended up worshiping a golden calf simply because they grew tired of having to wait on Moses and God.
5. Your judgment is suffering.
6. You have less courage.
a. He adds, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all” is a quote so ubiquitious that it has been attributed to General Patton and Vince Lombardi and Shakespeare. The same disciples who fled in fear when Jesus was crucified eventually sacrificed their lives for him. What changed was not their bodies, but their souls. The soul is not well when we rush so much. If it does not get the rest it needs, it becomes fatigued.
b. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (pp. 131-132). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
e. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” When you give your soul rest, you will get the peace of God as it rests in Him.
i. John’s shares a time when Dallas his soul care friend challenged him about the pace of his life:
1. Your so --- Dallas pointed out to me once that there is a world of difference between being busy and being hurried. Being busy is an outward condition, a condition of the body. It occurs when we have many things to do. Busy-ness is inevitable in modern culture. If you are alive today in North America, you are a busy person. There are limits to how much busy -ness we can tolerate, so we wisely find ways to slow down whenever we can. We take vacations, we sit in a La-Z-Boy with a good book, we enjoy a leisurely meal with friends. By itself, busy-ness is not lethal. Being hurried is an inner condition, a condition of the soul. It means to be so preoccupied with myself and my life that I am unable to be fully present with God, with myself, and with other people.
a. Did you hear this statement – When I am hurried and not soul rested “I am unable to be fully present with God.
b. This is why Jesus even in the midst of large crowds and ministry miracles – would then leave the crowd to get a way to a private place to rest and spend time with His Father.
2. Ortberg highlights, “I am unable to occupy this present moment. Busy-ness migrates to hurry when we let it squeeze God out of our lives. Note the differences between the two:
a. Busy -Hurried -A full schedule- Preoccupied Many activities -Unable to be fully present -An outward condition -An inner condition of the soul - Physically demanding -Spiritually draining Reminds me I need God- Causes me to be unavailable to God- I cannot live in the kingdom of God with a hurried soul. I cannot rest in God with a hurried soul.
b. We seem to spend most of our time trying to draw crowds and please crowds; Jesus seemed to spend much of his getting away from them. A rested soul is the easy yoke.
i. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 135). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
f. Our souls need scheduled times of rest:
i. I went on a soul/spiritual care retreat in Oct which really opened my eyes to my need to find these times of rest. Places of rest need to be scheduled for the health of my soul.
ii. John, “Your soul needs rest. It is not always the “world” that squeezes us into its mold. We all too often distract ourselves. Being completely alone with nothing but our thoughts can be frightening, so we will use anything to distract us from experiencing the soul-healing that comes in solitude.”
1. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 137). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
iii. He adds, “The opposite of the Cycle of Grace is what might be called the Cycle of Works. In this, I simply go backward against the tide of grace. I begin by trying to achieve impressive accomplishments through my own strength for my own ego. I hope that by doing this I might feel significant. I hope that this sense of significance will sustain me through all the difficulties and stresses of life. And ultimately I hope that the end result will be a life that is somehow acceptable to somebody. The Cycle of Works will destroy my soul. It is the hard yoke. It is the heavy burden.”
1. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 140). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
T.S. – Our souls need rest to be healthy and whole and if we can get our soul to understand soul freedom we will be able to meet any challenge that comes our way.
4. Your soul needs to be free
a. So the statement or point here says our souls need to be free – free from what? Does it mean free to do whatever we want to do? Does this bring true freedom or does it mean something else? Free spirited souls – what does that look like?
i. Running around with flowers in our hair?
ii. Living in a commune?
iii. Not working and living at the beach in a VW bus?
iv. Meditating?
v. Running around naked?
1. Share about the National Geographic show you watched: The naked church in Appalachia – is that freedom? Handling rattle snacks in church is that freedom?
vi. Smoking Marijuana? Doing drugs? Partying?
vii. Living in the woods in cabin isolated from others?
b. The Bible says in 2 Cor. 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
i. Freedom does not come by me doing whatever I want to do! Instead this usually leads me into bondage. It takes away my freedom.
1. Freedom comes from the Holy Spirit. It’s internal!
c. The Bible also reminds us what freedom is and is not in Gal. 5:13-17: You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
i. Many young people think that they will be free when they flee the rules of their parents – but they soon discover that freedom is not associated with doing whatever you want to do.
1. You are not free by external circumstances or lawless living – this brings bondage – freedom of the soul is an internal reality.
2. I think of the underground Chinese church.
d. 1 Peter 2:16-17: Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
i. The later verse hear describes for us what freedom looks like!
e. Romans 8:18-21: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
i. Freedom comes from being a child of God who is empowered by the Holy Spirit and living for Him.
f. John Ortberg states this about freedom of the soul: The old masters of the life of the soul used to warn about the dangers of dis-ordered attachment. Desire is good, but when you want something too much, it threatens to take God’s place in your life. It will lead you to make bad decisions. It will put you on an emotional roller coaster. The ability to have anything you want actually can cost you your freedom. Samson had an unquenchable desire for Delilah; the rich young ruler was consumed by his desire for money; Saul coveted the power that came with his throne; Cain gave in to his desire for revenge. How did that work for them?
i. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 141). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
ii. The Bible is filled with stories of individuals who had freedom to choose but they choose the wrong things which actually took their freedoms away.
g. The cost of choosing unwisely with your freedom:
i. Story from Ortberg: In the movie A Christmas Story, one of the kids is given a double-dog dare to touch his tongue to a frozen flagpole on a December morning. Instantly, his tongue is frozen fast to the icy metal, and from that moment he isn’t going anywhere. He is stuck. A slave to his tongue. Freedom will come, if it comes at all, only with enormous pain. We get double-dog dared all the time. Make it about sex. Make it about money. Make it about security. That tender object stuck frozen to the flagpole is your soul. It craves to be free, but we’re not sure what that means.
1. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 142). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
h. How free is really free? Some examples to think about!
i. What if anyone could choose for the sake of their freedom the speed limits in our society! What would happen? Would others be free because you go as fast or as slow as you want? You could make stop lights optional. Would that bring more freedom to our society?
ii. What if you could choose to pay your taxes or not – for the sake of freedom – would that bring a truly freed country to live in?
iii. What if for the sake of freedom a person who is married decides he wants to be married but sleep with whoever he wants – does that bring freedom?
i. Our souls want to be free but an unhealthy soul – detached from God will choose what they think are freedoms but in actuality are bondages.
i. John Ortberg adds, “The soul cries out to be free , but the common perception is that Christianity stands in the way of freedom. It’s all about obeying someone or something that tries to tell you how to live your life. As a Christian, according to this perception, you’re not free at all, but submissive, dependent, and enslaved by your religion. So people wonder — does God infringe on your soul’s need for freedom? Does becoming a Christian mean somebody dictates what you do, what you think, how you live? Even Christians sometimes adopt this view. They may affirm their belief in Jesus as the Son of God and accept his gift of salvation, but retain their “freedom” to decide for themselves how they should live. The soul needs freedom, but what exactly does that mean? That I can do whatever I want?
1. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 143). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
j. Philip Yancey’s wonderful book What’s So Amazing about Grace? Describes the pain he experienced over his church’s legalism: “I came out of a Southern fundamentalist culture that frowned on co-ed swimming, wearing shorts, jewelry or makeup, dancing, bowling, and reading the Sunday newspaper. Alcohol was a sin of a different order, with the sulfurous stench of hellfire about it. . . . No short skirts for women, no longer hair for men, no polka dots on dresses for women because they might draw attention to suggestive body parts, no kissing, no holding hands, no rock music, no facial hair . . . it all calls to mind the dog who thought his name was ‘No’ because that’s the only word he ever heard from his master.”
i. I read this book years ago and he reveals how Christianity in certain sects of it have missed the point of what true freedom is!
ii. Freedom comes from the Holy Spirit! From the spirit of God. A person who has a healthy soul and the Holy Spirit could even be free in prison – like the apostle was when he wrote the prison epistles.
iii. I like what John says about the misperception of the Ten Commandments:
1. The Ten Commandments were never designed to be a stand-alone list of rules. They come within a relational context. They describe what living up to a certain value and a certain identity and a certain destiny looks like. In fact, in Judaism, they are not called the Ten Commandments. The Hebrew term is aseret hadevarim, which literally means “ten utterances” or “ten statements” because they were rooted in things that are meant to be in God’s kingdom. They flow out of how we were designed, who we were meant to be. We read them as “this is what you have to do,” but God was saying, “this is who you are.” That’s why we don’t so much break the Ten Commandments as we break ourselves when we violate them… When we bind ourselves to God, to a code of morality that transcends our own particular opinions, do we lose freedom, or do we gain freedom? If my soul needs freedom, what does the law have to do with it? I believe the soul is actually revived by law.
a. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 145). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
b. Did you hear what John said – wow how we have misperceived what freedom is and is not in our world!
iv. John highlights more the misperception of what is freedom:
1. Freedom from external restraints appeals to all of us, but I do not believe that it’s the freedom the soul needs. For example, you generally can drink as much alcohol as you want, restricted only by laws prohibiting drinking and driving and public drunkenness . But if you want to get loaded every night in the privacy of your home, you’re free to have at it. Eventually, however, your drinking will begin to cause problems for you. It damages your health. It embarrasses your kids. It hurts your marriage. It threatens your job. You get to a point where you want to quit but you can’t. You discover that you are not free to enjoy sobriety. You’re free to drink as much as you want, but you’re not free to not drink. “I brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” Your freedom is not restricted simply by external constraints. There’s another odd kind of restriction. Your freedom gets limited by an internal reality that is a kind of brokenness or weakness or dividedness inside you. You want to stop drinking, but you can’t. You want to live with a happy, cheerful, optimistic attitude, but you don’t. You want to quit yelling at your kids, but you fail. You want to be the kind of person who manages anger really, really well, but you aren’t. You’d like to think you have become unselfish, but you haven’t. You are not free. The freedom you lack is an internal freedom, and this inner lack of freedom is much more dehumanizing, much more tragic than external constraints. This kind of freedom is internal, and it is precious. It is “soul-freedom.”
a. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 146). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
k. Our soul and its health is what dictates whether we are free or not.
i. John reminds us this, “Remember that the soul is what integrates our parts. If our will is enslaved to our appetites, if our thoughts are obsessed with unfulfilled desires, if our emotions are slaves to our circumstances, if our bodily habits contradict our professed values, the soul is not free. The only way for the soul to be free is for all the parts of our personhood to be rightly ordered.”
1. Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 146). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
2. He adds, “True freedom comes when you embrace God’s overall design for the world and your place in it. This is why in the Bible you see this strong connection between God’s law and soul-freedom.”
5. You are responsible for your own soul?
a. No one else is!
i. Your pastor is not responsible for your soul.
ii. Your spouse is not responsible for your soul.
iii. Your mom and dad are not responsible for your soul.
iv. Your church is not responsible for you soul.
v. You are!
b. Apparently we believe that by some magic, the law of consequences doesn’t apply to us.
i. I can spend without getting into debt.
ii. I can lie without getting caught.
iii. I can let my temper fly without damaging my relational life.
iv. I can have a bad attitude at work and get away with it.
v. I can avoid disciplining my children without their getting spoiled.
vi. I can neglect the Bible and still know God.
1. Our capacity to live in denial about the law of consequences is huge and is damaging to the soul. In the Bible it takes God a long time to teach the human race about this!
2. Above from Ortberg, John (2014-04-22). Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (pp. 90-91). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Conclusion:
